Hi Fieldstar,

Did you start with a low mileage (6.2 mi.) special, or did you start with a well worn vehicle? This makes a difference when you apply Stiffness and Chassis Refresh, as the handling will differ.

Altho I'm most comfortable with an FR car at the 'Ring, I continue to play around with MR's such as the Ford GT, hoping to tame the unruly rear-end. So far yours is quicker than mine.

Have you considered going for a wheel and pedal setup for your PS2?

Chassis stiffness has been a kind of elusive holy grail for racing car designers for nearly 50 years. With modern, properly engineered suspension geometry, tires and shocks, the handling of racing vehicles will benefit from a stiffer chassis. More primitive vehicles, such as vintage racing cars and today's racing karts, rely on a flexible chassis to lift, or weight jack, the inside rear tire to facilitate turning a corner. In the virtual world of GT4 it is difficult to know exactly what the developers have actually accomplished with this technology in each and every case. So we are left to experiment empirically, or rely on someone else's experience to proceed. It has been said that the stiffness tech will tend to increase the tendency to push, or understeer. Indeed, this tallies at least somewhat with the real world experience described above. It also might extend the period of time required before a chassis requires the "chassis refresh" tech, a good thing if you are putting a lot of miles on your vehicle, especially at a long, bumpy track like the Nurburgring which notoriously breaks chassis apart. If your vehicle oversteers, or is nervous and flighty at the rear-end, such as your Ford GT, more stiffness may help, and is worth a try, even at the "cost" of buying another car if it doesn't work out, since the tech is irreversible. Stiffness applied after a vehicle is worn may not achieve the same results as when applied new, as degradation may be locked in.

My very great thanks indeed for such high praise, my friend .

I'm sure, mind you, that there are a lot of tuners out there who are more deserving, it's just that they don't post their creations up on the Internet or that they focus on a different area e.g. Drifting, Rally or full-bore Le Mans racers. Plus, I do tend to 'go on' a bit about dampers and springs and 'whatnot' so it might just be I talk too loud :blush:.

It also has to be said that chassis tuning is a Black Art not only because of what the GT4 physics engine hides from us but because everyones driving style and tastes are different. So if anyone tries out one of the fruits of my labour and you find it to be 'bad', please feel free to say why you think so. It may be that there is a simple change that can be made to rebalance the car so that it suits you rather than me .

EDIT: I just also wanted to second Dotini's points made about "Chassis Stiffness" above. You have to approach it on a car-by-car and surface-by-surface basis. Some will react well to it and others not.

It has to be born in mind that if you are going to fit one, then it is better to do it at the start of the process rather than the end as it is likely to require a complete re-jig of the suspension and you don't want to waste all the hours put in previously ... unless you buy two cars of course .